Sunday, May 17, 2015

Steffen Peters and the 2015 Las Vegas World Cup...

Well, I finally had the chance the find video of Steffen Peters and Legolas performing their Freestyle routine at the 2015 World Cup in Las Vegas last month. What a shame. For those of you who may not have heard, this dynamic pair was disqualified because a small amount of blood was found on one of the horse's sides when he was checked following the performance. So many people were in an uproar, accusing Steffen of jabbing him with his spurs. So many people were quick to think the worst of him for this one incident, despite his past reputation. Just like in that game of Operator where you whisper something to one person then they whisper it to another until it's made it around the circle, the actual injury to Legolas went from 'a tiny bit of red' to 'lots of blood'. Nobody wanted to listen when others tried to point out that Steffen uses dulled, round spurs and would've had to been really, seriously kicking Legolas HARD to cause the amount of damage people believed he'd done, but if you watch the video of their performance, you will see the incident in question. Even when the judge said it was only a 'tiny bit of red on one side' and video inspection showed that the spurs he'd been wearing were the same ones he always did and couldn't have caused major damage, people didn't want to listen. Yes, I will admit that I'm a huge fan of his so I'm a "bit" biased, but if you watch the video I'm going to post, you can see for yourself what caused it to happen. And you will maybe agree with me it was a shame he was eliminated because he had a very good performance and even got a standing ovation. I think the winner of the event, Charlotte Desjardins, is an incredibly talented rider, but Steffen could've given her a real run for her money.

So, watch the video...or skip to near the end...you will see that when they gave their final salute, the crowd errupted into cheers and applause and Legolas 92 freaked out at the sudden noise. Steffen likely "dug in" (with his legs) to stay in the saddle and he probably put more pressure on the one side, which resulted in the injury.